Tokyo and Singapore

The rest of my stay in Tokyo has been filled with a lot of walking, a lot of reading in parks, and a lot of eating delicious food. On my first outing in the big city I took the subway to Harajuku, an area full of "teeny bopper"and costume stores. I had the experience of riding the subway at rush hour (you literally get shoved onto the train and get closer to complete strangers that you ever thought possible). I had gotten up fairly early so most of the stores in Harajuku were closed so I made my way to the Meiji-jingu park home to the beautiful Meiji-jingu temple (left).



My next stop was to the the neighborhood of Ueno where I went to yet another park (I like my Japanese gardens) and visited the national museum of Tokyo. I saw some beautiful Asian art including paintings, ceramics, Kimono and of course samurai swords. To the right is a model used for acupuncture teachings from the 17th century!

The next day I spent in central Tokyo and to do central Tokyo right you have to get up early in order to get the fish market experience. This was no pikes place market. Once I surfaced from the subway I was told to just follow the scent of fish to find the market and boy did that work. I then walked through the hustle and bustle and tried not to get run over by men in rubber boots driving carts, trucks, and running from stall to stall. There were rows and rows of seafood a lot of which I had never seen before (including some of the largest tuna I had ever seen). Some of the fish/creatures were still moving in their styrofoam stalls. You will see in one of the pictures below some men cutting tuna with what looked to me like a really long sword, it was at least a two man job from what I observed.





After wandering through the market for about an hour I was ready for my breakfast...sushi. This is THE place to get sushi in Tokyo and my breakfast time of 7am was the time to get it because you get the freshest tuna possible since the sushi bar is right next to the fish market. I have never had sushi like this before, the tuna melted in my mouth it was so good!

With a full stomach of sushi I was ready to walk, and boy did I walk. The area of Ginza is known for it's shopping so I walked around there, went into the Sony building which was full of gadgets that I had never seen before. Then after lunch I went to the Kabuki theater (you know, Japanese theater where they wear a lot of make up and men play the role of women). Most plays are really long so I went for the standing room only ticket for one act. The costuming and set design was beautiful! The crowds enthusiasm was quite interesting as well. When ever one of the "super star" actors came onto stage the audience would yell out their name and clap. Fortunatley I was given an english translator which helped make sense of it all.

My last day in Tokyo I spent in the gardens of the Imperial Palace (see pictures above). As I said before I love my Japanese Gardens. That afternoon I checked out of my hostel and headed for the airport to catch my flight to Singapore.

So with my luck I was having trouble finding a hostel in Singapore due to the fact that it was hosting the Grand Prix formula one race that weekend. Since my flight got in at midnight I just decided to sleep at the airport and catch the subway into town that morning.

Before I left for Singapore my friend Carly put me in touch with one of her co-workers (Keryn) who was going to be in town. So once I checked in I gave her a call and we decided to meet up at her hotel which was conveniently walking distance from my hostel. Keryn had been to Singapore 6 months earlier so she was happy to show me around the places she enjoyed on her past visit.

We started out with getting her favorite fruit drink, soursop juice which was delicious. Then we walked through china town where we visited little shops, a Buddhist temple and a hindu temple as well. The interesting thing about Singapore is its melting pot of different cultures. You can get every kind of food and then find any kind of house of worship after if you like. In fact my hostel was just down the street from a mosque and a few blocks from a church. You can see my hostel on the left in the picture above, it's where the red umbrella's are. The picture of me was taken in a Chinese Buddhist Temple and I'm "posing" infront of the Buddha for my year of the rat (make jokes if you must).

After getting some lunch we headed back to her hotel which, thanks to Keryn's job, was a really nice place. So I took a little "vacation from my vacation" and lounged by the pool. After a surprisingly good Mexican dinner on the river (I told you you could get any kind of food here) we called it an early night and went to bed (to the sound of racing cars, they were really loud).

The next day I met up with Keryn for a "good bye breakfast" and then had to check out of my hostel to go to yet another hostel (damn you formula one racing!). I walked around the city some more and later in the afternoon got caught in my first tropical rainstorm and boy does it pour! I was completely soaked. On my way back to my hostel this 13 year old girl took pitty on my lack of an umbrella and offered to share hers. I could have cried I was so touched! I didn't want to explain to her that I kind of liked the experience of being in the rain when it's 80 degrees out so I took her up on the offer. I tried to get a picture of how soaked I was while trying to make my way home but the one below still doesn't really give my situation justice.

So here I am now, dry and showered and hungry. I think maybe tonight I'll have Indian food, no Chinese, no Mediterranean, no Australian, no Thai.....